The Dream, The Challenge, The People
by Bob Kranich
(Excerpt 27)
Now we’re off to England, Wales, and Scotland with my good army buddy, Ed Clement.
England, Wales, and Scotland
When June arrived, we drove across country from Rochester to Chicago. We left our vehicle at Ed’s dad’s car lot, and had his brother drop us four off at the Chicago O'Hara airport. It was a non-stop flight to Frankfort, Germany. We arrived at the airport and unloaded. We were sent to an elevator, and when the elevator door opened, they threw our luggage out. No fancy carousels like today. After going through customs, we went and exchanged American dollars for German money.
Regarding our luggage, we were traveling very light. We each had sleeping bags which had shoulder straps attached to the stuff sacks. These were wore on our shoulders like backpacks. There were four small pannier saddle bags, one for each of us which had handles. In addition, we also had brought two small backpack tents.
We found a bus, and got on it heading towards the main downtown of Frankfurt. Ed wanted to find a motorcycle shop so he could initiate his plan to buy some motorbikes. He wanted to travel on the Rhine River bike path. If we could find motorbikes with small enough engines, we would be allowed to ride both without required driver’s licenses, and on the bike path.
While we were driving on the bus, Ed said that we needed to get directions to a motorcycle shop. None of us could speak German, and Irene who was fluent in Spanish, found a man who could speak Spanish and German. This man found a German person who knew where we would find a motorcycle shop. The German man told Irene in Spanish who translated to us in English. What an international event!
The bike path along the Rhine River was great, and what beautiful scenery with castles along the sides, and even on islands in the center of the river. Those on the islands were castles built by river barons in ancient history. They charged a fee for boats going both ways on the river. If you didn’t pay, you didn’t pass.
We stayed at “pensions”, which is another name for bed and breakfasts, every evening. We had to be careful on the roads because of the slower speed of the motorbikes. In France, we came upon the remains of Second World War military bunkers along the side of the road. We finally made it to Calais. We bought our tickets, and loaded both us and our motorbikes on the ferry.
The Channel crossing was memorable. It was so impressive when we viewed looming up ahead, the white chalk Cliffs of Dover. Back on the road, we were in dangerous company. The road was a main artery, and next to the big trucks and the speeding cars, we were incremental nothings.
When we got to London, Irene and I decided that we wanted to tour the entire United Kingdom, and it would take a car. We found a car lot, and for $300 dollars American money, a Scottish salesman sold us a Morris Mini. We then left our motorbikes with Ed’s wife’s parents. That evening we took a bus to the car lot and picked up our vehicle.
We got the car in the evening because in England you drive on the left side of the road, and we wanted to practice without much traffic around. Talk about a shock. Every time you make a turn, you must end up on the left side. One side note is that when you are a pedestrian, you must be very careful to look both ways before crossing, or just stepping out. You might look the wrong way first. We got our practice in, and the next day headed out on our tour of England, Wales, and Scotland.
We had about 6 weeks, and we were to meet Ed and his wife at her brother’s house in Edinburgh, Scotland.
We started stopping at every castle. I found it so interesting. I am of the age of Prince Valiant in the newspaper comics. However, there are so many castles in England that we finally had to just pass them by, do other things, and get on with our travels and adventures. You might say, we were castled out!
In England, we stayed at bed and breakfast locations. Occasionally, we visited state or government parks, and put up the small backpack tent I had brought. Since we had thought Ed’s wife was going to be our tour guide, we had not done any prior research on places to visit. But now we were on our own, and had to rely on brochures and any map we might find as we traveled about. That is how we stumbled upon “Hadrian’s Wall.”
Just before we got into Wales, which is across the border from England, we came upon the Wall. It seems that the Romans could not subdue the wild Scottish clansmen, so they built a wall at a narrow place between the North Sea and the Irish Sea. Hadrian’s Wall was begun in 122 AD, built under the guidance of three Roman legions. It took about six years to complete the basic wall. The wall was composed of a stone base and wall filled with earth. The wall measured from eight to ten feet wide, and from eleven to twenty feet high. There were observation turrets and forts scattered along the wall. Many of the forts had cavalry that could move quickly to other locations as needed. Today, many places are reconstructed and preserved. There is a hiking path for tourists.
We then went into Wales. One day we were traveling on a road that had a great view down into some grazing fields. We stopped to look. Below us, we saw three horsemen. They were giving commands by whistling to black and white Welsh sheepdogs, who in turn were herding a large flock of sheep. It was fascinating to watch.
From the Author:
“The Lodge Called Folkestone”. You may wonder why the first half of the book is about my many adventures throughout the USA. Well, this first part explains just why my interests changed from hot rodding cars to backpacking. How the idea of a lodge came about, and just how the lodge came to be in North Carolina and next to the Smoky Mountain National Park, Deep Campground to be exact.
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